Cobalt Hour (コバルト・アワー, Kobaruto Awaa), stylized as COBALT HOUR, is Yumi Arai's third studio album, released on June 20, 1975 by Toshiba EMI/Express (now part of EMI Music Japan). The album was also distributed by Alfa Records for a period of time, as Alfa also held ancillary rights to this and the other LPs Arai released during the time Alfa was still a publishing company; those rights later reverted to EMI Japan in 1994-thereabouts, when EMI regained distribution of Alfa's catalogue except for the artists who were published by Alfa and were distributed by other labels (and later retained most of it, including Arai's first 4 LPs [whose rights she had managed to buy before Alfa was sold to Sony], while the rest, the catalogue from when Alfa was a recording label and the bulk of the catalogue from when it was a publishing company, went with Sony Music Entertainment, including session player Haruomi Hosono's future work both as a solo musician and as part of Yellow Magic Orchestra). On April 26, 2000, the recording was digitally remastered for re-release on CD by Bernie Grundman. Internet sales of the album began March 10, 2005.

COBALT HOUR
Studio album by
ReleasedJune 20, 1975 (1975-06-20)
RecordedMarch 1 – April 25, 1975
GenreJ-pop
Length36:26
LabelToshiba-EMI/Express
Alfa
ProducerKunihiko Murai, Shōrō Kawazoe
Yumi Arai chronology
MISSLIM
(1974)
COBALT HOUR
(1975)
Yuming Brand
(1976)
Singles from COBALT HOUR
  1. "Rūju no Dengon"
    Released: February 20, 1975

The album cover was illustrated by Pater Sato. Though Arai's nickname "Yuming" is written on the cover, it is clear that the "g" was added later.

Track list

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Side A
No.TitleTitle translationLength
1."COBALT HOUR" 3:33
2."Sotsugyō Shashin (卒業写真)"Graduation Photograph4:11
3."Hana Kikō (花紀行)"Travelling Through Scattered Petals2:48
4."Nani mo Kikanaide"Don't Ask Me Anything3:11
5."Rūju no Dengon (ルージュの伝言)"Lipstick Message/Message in Rouge3:03
Side B
No.TitleTitle translationLength
1."Kōkai Nisshi (航海日誌)"Logbook4:48
2."CHINESE SOUP" 3:22
3."Sukoshi Dake Kataomoi (少しだけ片想い)"I Love You More Than You Love Me/Just a Little Unrequited Love3:17
4."Ame no Suteishon (雨のステイション)"Rainy Station5:14
5."Afurika e Ikitai (アフリカへ行きたい)"Take Me To Africa3:10
  • Lyrics and arrangement by Yumi Arai, edited by Masataka Matsutoya.

Performers

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Chart performance

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Weekly charts

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Year Album Country Chart Position Weeks Sales
1975 Cobalt Hour Japan Oricon Weekly LP Albums Chart 2 90 435,000[1]
Oricon Weekly CT Albums Chart 12 44 27,000[1]

Year-end charts

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Year Album Country Chart Position Sales
1975 Cobalt Hour Japan Oricon Yearly Albums Chart 31 93,000[2]
1976 5 260,000[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Yumi Matsutoya" (in Japanese). Archived from the original on November 11, 2007. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  2. ^ "年間アルバムヒットチャート 1975年". Private Life エンタメデータ&ランキング. Archived from the original on December 20, 2013. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  3. ^ "年間アルバムヒットチャート 1976年". Private Life エンタメデータ&ランキング. Archived from the original on October 11, 2012. Retrieved December 18, 2013.